With James Charles’ name all over the news lately, it seems fitting to learn a little bit more about the world’s most famous beauty guru.
From his viral beginnings to his current explosive feud with the beauty community, here’s what we know about James Charles.
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He got famous by accident
James, who had a respectable 40k+ followers at the time, tweeted out his high school yearbook re-take in 2016.
The images quickly went viral, and celebrities like Zendaya were in on congratulating him for his ingenuity.
CoverGirl made him their first male ambassador
The viral fame quickly flipped over to real fame.
CoverGirl signed James as their first CoverBoy in 2016.
His first scandal involved allegedly racist tweets
In his tweet, he admits to thinking that there was a possibility he could have gotten Ebola while visiting Africa on a school trip.
He faced massive backlash for perpetuating stereotypes about Africa.
He also faced mockery when he referred to Africa as a “country” in his apology.
At its height, his YouTube channel had over 16.5 million subscribers
Due to his conflict with fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook, he has since lost that number.
James’ current YouTube subscriber count is around 13.4 million. The speed of his loss seems to have finally slowed.
He’s become a meme a couple times over
One of the most notorious James memes is undoubtedly Flashback Mary.
In a photo with a fan, the flash bounced off of James’ setting powder and made him look like, well, Casper the ghost.
Though the photo was edited to be a bit lighter than it really was, the meme persists to this day.
He launched his own palette
In 2018, James teamed up with the brand Morphe to introduce his own makeup palette.
It contains 39 shades, and sold out immediately. Some of the shade names include “Sister,” “Pinkity Drinkity,” and “Code James.”
He’s worked with some huge celebrities
His YouTube channel has hosted big-time celebrities, like Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Iggy Azalea.
For his Kylie video, he made her over for Halloween with a low-key skeleton look. The video has over 29 million views.
He attended the 2019 Met Gala
James attended the Met Gala on behalf of YouTube, joining other influencers like Liza Koshy and Riverdale ‘s Madelaine Petsch.
He was dressed by Alexander Wang, and documented his entire Met Gala journey for his YouTube channel.
The theme of the 2019 gala was “Camp: Notes on Fashion.”
He has his own apparel line
Called Sisters Apparel, James described the line as “inclusive, good & fresh.”
The line is currently unavailable, thanks to his scandal with Tati Westbrook. The brand’s supplier, Killer Merch (owned by James’ former friend, Jeffree Star) seems to have taken the Sister Site down.
He once had beef with the cast of “It”
Yup, you read that right.
Summarizing the whole thing is going to be a mess, but here goes: James began tweeting from the movie theatre where he was seeing It , saying he didn’t like it.
The internet dragged him for it, including the stars of the movie.
James then capitalized on that fame and did a Pennywise makeup look.
The It cast dragged him for that.
So, yeah. Messy.
He’s worked with some of the biggest YouTubers ever
From his friendship with beauty mogul (and fellow drama-magnet) Jeffree Star to the formation of the Sister Squad with Emma Chamberlain and the Dolan twins, James’ friend group was the who’s who of YouTube.
All previously mentioned YouTubers and celebrities have since unfollowed James on social media.
He caused major drama when he announced his tour
Called the “Sisters Tour,” the whole thing took on a dramatic edge when the ticket prices were announced.
Some were upwards of $500, which had the internet completely floored.
James is currently on the tour in Australia.
He’s been made over by some of the most famous drag queens in the world
Most recently, he collaborated with RuPaul’s Drag Race season 11 contestant, Plastique Tiara, to do a full head-to-toe drag transformation.
His other drag collabs include season 9’s Farrah Moan, and season 4’s Willam.
His most-watched video is his apology to Tati
On the heels of Tati’s 40-minute James Charles exposé, James took a break from the Sisters Tour to record an 8-minute apology to Tati.
As of writing, the video has over 49 million views. YouTuber drama does serious numbers, y’all.
He now boasts the record for most amount of subscribers lost
Previously held by his former friend, Laura Lee, who herself had major drama this time last year, James has now surpassed her subscriber loss count.
To date, he has lost over 3.7 million subscribers. Ouch.
